Start8 and ModernMix -- Windows 8's last, best hope for normality

The "Modern" or Metro gui while modified to fit the desktop Windows wasn't designed for the desktop no matter how you want to look at it! It was developed for the new Surface tablet but deployed on 8 to keep things "looking the same" as a marketing angle(plus sacrifice of desktop gui) since MS wants to grab into the mobile market competition with Google and the Fruit company!

This is where the main gripes are heard at how MS simply went out of their usual way to push Tablet touch and swipe without "options" for seeing any form of the traditional desktop. "You are now required to purchase items separately if you expect to see any normalcy in Windows! We are MS and this is what you get STUCK WITH!" is about the type of resasoning there. At least despite all of the Vista bashing you found there were "options" which MS now decided won't be necessary.

DeaconFrost said:

Everything you are saying is technically correct, but can also be resolved within 60 seconds, less time than it took to type that post. If all you or anyone can complain about is the Metro default option, that isn't really a stumbling block or any reason not to use the OS. I believe gregrocker has linked a tutorial several times on adding back the start menu without even using 3rd party software, so again, if that's the only gripe, it's been relegated to a non-issue.

Truthfully Deacon I no longer trust Microsoft to do the reasonable thing like I used to, their attitude over this W8 thing has destroyed that by refusing to offer any reasonable options to make W8 more desktop user friendly.

They are purposely distancing themselves from the traditional desktop and millions of desktop users for some ridiculous reason, and they could still short circuit those 3rd party programs you're talking about with a strategic update. They already attempted something like that once, they could do it again.

Besides, you talk about W8 as if it's here to stay for a few years, when in reality W8 appears to be a quickly evolving, anti desktop metamorphic brainstorm of Microsoft, as evidenced by Windows Blue further advancing that metamorphosis, and W8 is only a few months old.
It's already been predicted W9 that will finish off the desktop for good.
You're still bragging on W8 and it's already become W8.1.

The Start screen and how things were decentralized as far as hidden toolbars and right click popup menus wasn't the only thing as to why 8 isn't on here other then on VM presently. The way MS also decided to strip out other things you would find in XP with WMP10, Vista, and 7 but gone in 8 were things being used presently in 7!

I really could care less if 8 boots up 15 times faster then 7 understanding progress with the MinWin modular form of kernel as you would expect MS to continue that in a progressive manner. To simply jump on 8 just because it is new wasn't seen as any praticality with the tablet gui and other disorganization simply being a waste of time regardless of any guides for seeing the Start menu replaced usually by borrowing from 7 which already has everything need in it!

That's not being a bash or fan for 8 simply how things work! For someone with nothing tied into one version who could care what the OS looks like or how it works to simply check the mail and shop online they wouldn't care about how MS trashes the OS to begin with! On the other hand for those that expect to find familiar things and then the next version is half of the OS they were running... "No way!" ME broke the OS and it shows!

The one thing I keep forgetting to mention is "consistency"! This is what the average pc user looks for right from the start even when considering an upgrade into any newer version of Windows.. MS seems to have broken the rules as far as that is concerned while a look at what other OSs do to maintain their own consistencies despite being able to add new features as well as new looks at times even reflects that on their hand helds as well.

One example is what the Fruit company has been doing with their stuff. Proof that Apple's main iPad and iPhone interface has barely changed in 20 years (Gallery)

Change is good. Just look at all the changes in hardware and software we have seen in the last 10 years. Most of those changes have been for a better way of doing things using new technology.
Then one must look at the changes that were made that didn't provide improvement. They are gone and forgot.
The market place will decide if Windows 8 is a improvement or gone and forgot.
It's beginning to look like the market place when it comes to PC's and Laptops is putting Windows 8 in the gone and forgot group.
This does not have to be this way if Microsoft would just give choices.
Just think if Microsoft had a Windows 8 for phones and tablets and a Windows 8 for PC's and Laptops. They would cover various markets with a operating system suited for the hardware and the use of such hardware.
I my opinion Microsoft has the knowledgeably personal and moneys to do such a thing if the boardroom boys and girls would just let them do it.
Of course the boardroom boys and girls would have to admit they had misjudged the market place. There lay the big stumbling stone.
I hear tell that the boys and girls are having them selves fitted with iron necklaces so when heads roll they will survive.

They're going to need something! Progressive change is always good. But when you go against what the market(desktops, laptops) expects you fumble! And now you see why the sales people dictating how the gui will be doesn't work too welll. Let the desktop gui professionals handle making the desktop look like the tablet while still developing a desktop solution. Some at MS were only narrowly looking in a bubble!

Layback Bear said:

Change is good. Just look at all the changes in hardware and software we have seen in the last 10 years. Most of those changes have been for a better way of doing things using new technology.
Then one must look at the changes that were made that didn't provide improvement. They are gone and forgot.
The market place will decide if Windows 8 is a improvement or gone and forgot.
It's beginning to look like the market place when it comes to PC's and Laptops is putting Windows 8 in the gone and forgot group.
This does not have to be this way if Microsoft would just give choices.
Just think if Microsoft had a Windows 8 for phones and tablets and a Windows 8 for PC's and Laptops. They would cover various markets with a operating system suited for the hardware and the use of such hardware.
I my opinion Microsoft has the knowledgeably personal and moneys to do such a thing if the boardroom boys and girls would just let them do it.
Of course the boardroom boys and girls would have to admit they had misjudged the market place. There lay the big stumbling stone.
I hear tell that the boys and girls are having them selves fitted with iron necklaces so when heads roll they will survive.

Bingo! That's the whole thing in a nutshell Bear.
It's not the OEMs, it's not the 8 crowd or the 7 crowd, it's MICROSOFT!

Like you said......
"This does not have to be this way if Microsoft would just give choices."
Hello Microsoft, is anybody home?

That's the one thing I have been pointing out since first seeing the Customer Preview without any options during the setup or once 8 was on for any type of traditional form of desktop gui. Instead you end up going on some wild goose chase trying to find out where things are making the whole thing obsolete!

It's not simply because some people don't like the Start screen or hidden menus and toolbars to find but the additional steps you need for each move never seen before whlie even the advanced users like to be able to see a productive workstation concept without 3rd party apps or even the need to follow a guide someone wrote but should already be included in the OS to begin with!

Common sense be lacking by whomever at MS made the decision to trash the desktop without any foresight about how the end users would react! And the blog writers have been having a field day ever since!